Nicely Balanced Look at Hurricane Influence

Nicely Balanced Look at Hurricane Influence

Here's a short Wired piece adding some balance to an earlier Wall Street Journal article that dismisses climate change as an influencer of hurricane intensity.

The WSJ piece is also worth the read. It's interesting to see Bill (if-I-haven't-observed-it-with-my-own-eyes,-it's -not-happening) Gray tie himself up in knots, predicting more hurricanes of higher intensity but denying that climate change could be a contributing factor. Gray brings an atheist's resolute faith to the question of CO2-induced climate change. Where the most careful scientists acknowledge the possibility that global warming is whipping up fiercer hurricanes - but admit that they can't say for sure - Gray is certain beyond the necessity for proof that climate change is NOT a factor.

It's also interesting hearing someone who can consistently get his opinions printed in the Wall Street Journal complain that climate scientists “have the ears of the media.”

For more on this topic, Chris Mooney at “The Intersection” (you can get there through the links provided by RealClimate.org) has a new book out called “Storm World”. It was very highly reviewed and recommended by the climate scientists at RealClimate.

Greg Holland (National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO) and Peter Webster (School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA),have a paper accepted for publication in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A which states “It is concluded that the overall trend in SSTs and tropical cyclone and hurricane numbers is substantially influenced by greenhouse warming”. The preprint can be accessed at: http://www.mmm.ucar.edu/people/holland/files/NaturalVariabilityOrClimateTrend.pdf Ian Forrester

Democracy is utterly dependent upon an electorate that is accurately informed. In promoting climate change denial (and often denying their responsibility for doing so) industry has done more than endanger the environment. It has undermined democracy.

There is a vast difference between putting forth a point of view, honestly held, and intentionally sowing the seeds of confusion. Free speech does not include the right to deceive. Deception is not a point of view. And the right to disagree does not include a right to intentionally subvert the public awareness.

Bjorn Lomborg’s latest op-ed in the Wall Street Journal resurrects repeatedly demolished distortions of fact to downplay the real and increasingly documented threats of climate change. His trademark tactic is to acknowledge that climate change is real and human-caused, only to then dismiss the solutions—reducing emissions and promoting...